Georgia jackpot scratcher, tickets sold, revenue, what UGA got for deal
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The 30-second TV commercial was made for Georgia football fans ready to attack the day. There are images of the Dawg Walk, Hairy Dawg, cheerleaders, the UGA Paint Line and Bulldog mascot Uga.
“You know what day it is. It’s Game Day,” the commercial’s narrator says with gusto in the ad that started airing before the season. “And here in Dawg Nation, Game Day is like no other. When the Bulldogs take the field, it’s electric. Now Game Day can be every day with the first ever Georgia Bulldogs scratcher. Boasting a top prize of $300,000. So for those of you who bleed red and black, you know what to do. It’s time to let the Big Dawg scratch. Win up to $300,000. Play the Georgia Bulldog jackpot scratcher from the Georgia Lottery.”
So did the Georgia Lottery’s Georgia Bulldog scrach-off game appeal to its audience?
The $5 game launched on Aug. 19 and through the end of November, generated $15,755,500 through 3,151,110 tickets sold, according to information provided to the Athens Banner-Herald by the Georgia Lottery Corporation in an open records request.
The most sales of scratch off tickets came in September with $6.96 million in revenue generated and it decreased to $2.93 million in October and $87,600 in November.
“There was less inventory (tickets) in the marketplace in later months due to strong game sales in the first few months,” the Lottery said.
The Georgia Bulldogs scratcher sold 3% better than other $5 scratch off games at the same time, according to Tandi Reddick, communications director for the Georgia Lottery Corporation.
It came out of the Georgia Lottery’s marketing sponsorship package with UGA athletics, worth $703,000 in year one of a new three-year agreement to use UGA marks and rights to develop a co-branded UGA scratcher ticket, brand and beneficiary promotional messaging at UGA athletic events and in-arena marketing/signage, according Reddick.
Georgia will get $806,490 in the second year of the deal and $830,685 in the third.
“It’s just an extension of a long-term partnership that we’ve had with the lottery,” Alan Thomas, Georgia’s senior associate athletic director for marketing and revenue strategy, said. “Excited it has our brand out there and tied back to what gives back to so many students across the state of Georgia.”
College sports had distanced itself from gambling for years, but that has changed with sports betting legal in more states.
Georgia Lottery is an advertiser on football coach Kirby Smart’s Thursday night radio show during the season and it is a sponsor that can be seen on signs at UGA athletic venues, including on Stegeman Coliseum on court signs.
On the back of a four page handout at a Georgia basketball game that includes team rosters, a lottery ad promotes that more than $30 billion has gone to education since the lottery’s inception more than 30 years ago, including 2.25 million HOPE scholars attending college.
UGA president Jere Morehead joined Georgia Tech president Angel Cabrera and Gov. Brian Kemp and wife Marty for a ceremonial check presentation with Georgia Lottery Officials, according to WSB, before the rivals’ football game in November.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia Bulldog lottery scratch off game by the numbers, revenue
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